Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out!
I’m happy to give you some of my initial thoughts on getting beta testers with paid ads. It’s a common problem, and to be honest, where you're struggling is where most founders get it wrong. The issue isn't really about which button to click in Ads Manager; it's about the entire strategy behind the click. Most people burn cash because they haven't got their foundations right.
The truth is, "acquiring beta testers" is a tough sell. You're asking for someone's valuable time and feedback, often for an unproven product. So you can't just throw up an ad and hope for the best. You have to be much more deliberate. Let's break down how I'd approach this.
We'll need to look at your offer first... because it's probably not good enough
This might sound harsh, but it’s the number one reason I see campaigns for new software fail. The offer is weak. Why should anyone care about your app enough to become a beta tester? "Get early access" just doesn't cut it anymore. It’s not a real benefit. You're asking for a favour, so you need to offer something of genuine value in return.
Before you even think about spending a single pound on ads, you need to nail this. The offer is everything. It's the engine of the entire campaign. A weak offer means high costs and few signups, no matter how clever your targeting is. A strong offer can make a campaign fly.
What does a strong offer for beta testers look like? It’s something that solves a small, immediate problem for them or gives them an undeniable advantage.
Some ideas:
-> A significant lifetime discount: Not just 10% off. Something that makes them feel like a true founding member. "50% off for life" is a powerful hook.
-> A free premium tier forever: If you have a freemium model, offering the top-tier plan for free to your first 100 beta users is a massive incentive.
-> Productised value: Can you offer them something else alongside the beta access? A free 1-on-1 onboarding session? A free audit of their current process that your app is meant to replace? Something that delivers value immediately.
Once you have the offer, you need to build a simple, powerful landing page. This page has one job and one job only: to sell the *vision* and get that email address. Don't clutter it with a dozen features. You need to articulate the pain you're solving so clearly that the visitor feels like you've been reading their mind. This is where professional-level copy makes all the difference. You're not just describing an app; you're telling a story.
For example, let's use the 'Before-After-Bridge' framework. Let’s imagine your app helps freelance designers manage their projects.
The Before: "Another weekend lost to admin. You're buried under conflicting client feedback in endless email chains, chasing invoices, and your Trello board is a mess. You became a designer to create, not to be a project manager."
The After: "Imagine hitting your desk on Monday morning knowing exactly what to work on. All your feedback is in one place, version control is automatic, and invoices are sent and tracked without you lifting a finger. You feel in control, creative, and you get your weekends back."
The Bridge: "Our app is the bridge to get you there. We're looking for 100 freelance designers to help us build the ultimate project tool. As a thank you, our founding beta testers will get our Pro Plan free, forever. Secure your spot."
See the difference? It's not about features. It’s about the emotional transformation. That's what you need to sell. Without this, your ads are just shouting into the void.
You probably should forget demographics and focus on the nightmare
You mentioned you don't have a specific location focus. Good. In the digital world, geography is often the least important targeting parameter. But this freedom is also a trap. Many founders respond by targeting ridiculously broad audiences like "males aged 25-45 interested in technology". That's a surefire way to set your money on fire.
The biggest mistake in targeting is defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) by sterile demographics. "SMEs in the tech sector" or "Marketing managers" tells you almost nothing of value. It leads to generic ads that speak to no one. Your ICP isn't a demographic; it's a *problem state*. It's a nightmare.
You need to become an obsessive expert on the specific, urgent, and expensive problem your app solves. Who feels this pain most acutely? Whose job or livelihood is at risk because this problem exists?
Let’s go back to teh designer app example. Your ICP isn't "freelance designers." It's more specific. It's the freelance designer who has just lost a client because they missed a deadline buried in an email chain. It's the designer who is constantly under-pricing their work because they can't accurately track their time. It's the designer who is on the verge of burnout from the sheer weight of administrative chaos. That is a nightmare. And your app is the cure.
When you define your customer by their pain, your ad copy writes itself, and your targeting becomes incredibly sharp. You’re not looking for 'designers'; you're looking for people exhibiting the *symptoms* of this pain online.
This is the foundational work. Do this before you even open an ad account. Who are they, really? What is their biggest professional fear? What result do they want more than anything else? Answer that, and you have your entire strategy.
I'd say you need to find where your ICP lives online
Once you understand their nightmare, you can figure out where they hang out online to complain about it, or to look for solutions. This is the key to effective targeting without relying on location. You're not targeting places; you're targeting behaviours and interests that are a proxy for the pain you solve.
Where does our burnt-out freelance designer go?
-> What software do they already use and pay for? Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Sketch. These are targetable interests on platforms like Meta.
-> Who do they follow? Influential designers like Chris Do, popular design publications like Smashing Magazine or Awwwards. Again, targetable.
-> What communities are they in? Facebook groups like 'The Freelance Tribe' or specific design-focused subreddits. You can't target group members directly anymore, but knowing the groups tells you the language they use and the other pages/interests they might have.
-> What keywords would they search for? This is for later, with Google Ads, but thinking about it now helps. They might not search for "project management app for designers" if they don't know a solution exists. They might search for "how to handle difficult clients" or "freelance invoice template". This is problem-aware searching.
This intelligence-gathering creates your targeting blueprint. For a new campaign on Meta, I'd build ad sets based on these themes. One ad set targeting software interests (Figma, Adobe XD), another targeting publication/influencer interests (Awwwards, Dribbble, Behance), and a third targeting job titles or related interests like 'graphic design' or 'UX design'.
Here’s a sample of what that might look like for our designer app to demonstrate. This is how you start to structure your tests.
| Ad Set Theme | Example Meta Ads Interests | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor/Tool Users | People who have expressed an interest in or like pages related to: Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, InVision, Trello, Asana. | These users are already using digital tools to manage their work. They understand the value of software and are more likely to adopt a new, better solution. They are problem-aware. |
| Industry Communities | People who have expressed an interest in or like pages related to: Dribbble, Behance, Awwwards, Smashing Magazine, Creative Bloq. | These users are actively engaged in the design community. They are looking to improve their craft and are exposed to new trends and tools. This is a highly relevent audience. |
| Job Function / Skills | People who list their job title as 'Graphic Designer', 'Product Designer', 'UX/UI Designer' OR have interests in 'User Experience Design', 'Web Design', 'Branding'. | A broader approach, but still focused. This catches people who might not actively follow the big communities but whose work life is defined by the pain you solve. |
You test these seperately to see which 'pockets' of the internet respond best. This is infinitely more effective than a broad, location-based campaign.
You'll need to pick your battleground, and 'Awareness' is a surrender
Now that you have your offer, your message, and your initial targeting hypotheses, you can choose where to run the ads. Don't try to be everywhere at once. Pick one platform and get it working first.
Organic Platforms (Your First Stop): Before spending money, go where the early adopters live. Post your landing page on Betalist, Product Hunt, and Indie Hackers. These communities are specifically built for people who *want* to try new software. You'll get high-quality feedback and your first few signups. This validates your idea before you scale with paid ads. This won't bring you hundreds of testers overnight, but it's a vital first step.
Paid Platforms (When You're Ready to Scale):
-> Meta (Facebook/Instagram): This is likely your best bet to start. The interest-based targeting we just discussed is powerful, and it's great for reaching people who aren't actively searching for a solution but will respond to a compelling message that hits their pain point. It's also where we've seen great success for B2B software, like one campaign where we got 4,622 registrations at just $2.38 each for a B2B app.
-> Apple Search Ads: If your app is mobile-only, this is a must. You are targeting people with high intent, literally in the App Store searching for apps. The volume might be lower, but the quality of signups can be excellent. It was part of a mix for one of our clients where we drove over 45,000 signups.
-> LinkedIn Ads: If your app is definately B2B and solves a problem for a specific professional (e.g., accountants, sales managers, CTOs), then LinkedIn is the place. The targeting is unmatched for job titles, company sizes, and industries. It’s more expensive, but the lead quality can be superb. We’ve run campaigns getting leads from B2B decision makers for around $22, which is very efficient for high-value software.
A Critical Warning: Whatever platform you choose, there is one campaign objective you must avoid like the plague: "Brand Awareness" or "Reach." This is the most common and costly mistake a startup can make. When you select this objective, you are telling the algorithm: "Find me the cheapest possible eyeballs, regardless of whether they will ever click, sign up, or buy." The platform will dutifully find you people who are famous for ignoring ads. You are literally paying to be ignored.
From day one, your campaign objective must be Conversions (sometimes called Leads or Website Conversions). You need to configure a conversion event for a successful beta signup on your landing page. This tells the algorithm: "I don't care about clicks or views. Go and find me people who are similar to the ones who are actually signing up." This is how you find real, potential customers, not just passive scrollers.
We'll need to look at what success costs
So, what should you expect to pay for a beta tester? It's not a simple answer, but it's not a complete mystery either. For a beta signup, you are essentially generating a lead. Based on our experience across hundreds of campaigns, we can establish some realistic benchmarks.
For a lead/signup objective, the cost depends hugely on the audience you're targeting. Let's look at some rough numbers.
| Metric | Developed Countries (UK, US, CA, etc.) | Developing Countries |
|---|---|---|
| Typical CPC (Cost Per Click) | £0.50 - £1.50 | £0.10 - £0.50 |
| Expected Landing Page Conversion Rate | 10% - 30% | 10% - 30% (can be lower quality) |
| Resulting CPA (Cost Per Signup) Range | £1.67 - £15.00 | £0.33 - £5.00 |
As you can see, a cost of £4-£8 per beta signup from a quality country would be completely normal. If you get it lower, brilliant. If it’s much higher, something in your funnel (the ad, the landing page, the offer) is broken. We ran a campaign for a software client that achieved 5,082 trial signups at $7 per trial, which sits squarely in this range. For another, we hit over 3,500 users at under £1 each, which was an exceptional result driven by a fantastic offer and highly optimised creative.
The real question isn't just about this initial cost, though. It's about what that user is worth to you in the long run. Thinking about Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) from day one is what separates amateur advertisers from proffesional growth strategists.
Let's do some quick maths. Let's say your app will cost £40/month, your gross margin is 80%, and you expect to lose 5% of your customers each month (monthly churn).
LTV = (Average Monthly Revenue * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate
LTV = (£40 * 0.80) / 0.05
LTV = £32 / 0.05 = £640
In this scenario, each customer you acquire is worth £640 to you. A healthy business can afford to spend up to 1/3rd of its LTV to acquire a customer, which would be £213. Suddenly, paying £7 for a beta signup who has a chance of converting to that £640 customer looks like an incredible bargain, doesn't it?
This is the mindset you need. You're not spending money; you're investing in acquiring assets. This math frees you from the tyranny of trying to get the cheapest possible lead and allows you to focus on getting the *best quality* lead.
I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:
This is a lot to take in, I know. It’s a completely different way of thinking than just "boosting a post". This is a system. To make it more concrete, here is the exact process I would follow if we were starting your beta tester campaign tomorrow.
| Step | Actionable Task | Why It's Important |
|---|---|---|
| #1: Solidify the Offer | Decide on a single, powerful incentive for beta testers (e.g., 50% off for life, Pro Plan free forever). Build a dedicated landing page that sells the transformation, not just the features. | Your offer is the single biggest lever for conversion. A weak offer guarantees campaign failure before it even begins. It must be a no-brainer for your ideal user. |
| #2: Define the Nightmare | Write a one-page document detailing your ICP based on their most urgent, expensive problem. Forget demographics. What keeps them up at night? What do they secretly wish they had a magic wand to fix? | This document becomes your bible for all ad copy and targeting. It ensures your message is painfully relevant and resonates on an emotional level. |
| #3: Priortise & Test Targeting | Based on your 'Nightmare' document, create 3 distinct ad sets on Meta. Theme them by: 1) Competitor Tools, 2) Industry Communities/Influencers, 3) Job Functions/Skills. | This structured test will quickly tell you which pocket of your audience is most responsive, allowing you to focus your budget where it works instead of guessing. |
| #4: Build a Conversion Campaign | On your chosen platform (likely Meta), create a campaign with the "Conversions" or "Leads" objective. Install the pixel on your website and set up a custom conversion event for a successful beta signup. | This instructs the algorithm to actively hunt for people likely to convert, not just cheap viewers. This is the fundamental difference between effective and ineffective advertising. |
| #5: Set a Test Budget & KPI | Start with a modest daily budget (£20-£50/day). Your Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is not clicks, it's your target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) for a beta signup (e.g., aim for under £10). Run the test for 5-7 days. | This provides enough data to make informed decisions without risking a huge amount of capital. You'll know if the core strategy is working and can decide whether to kill, adjust, or scale your campaigns. |
As you can probably tell, getting paid advertising right is a complex process. It’s not just about technical skill with the ad platforms; it’s about deep strategic thinking covering your offer, your customer psychology, your messaging, and your unit economics. It’s very easy to burn through thousands of pounds with very little to show for it if any one of these pieces is out of place.
This is where expert help can make a huge difference. We do this all day, every day. We've run the tests, made the mistakes, and figured out what works across dozens of software and service businesses. We can help you sidestep the expensive learning curve and implement a professional-grade strategy from day one.
If you’d like to have a chat about how we could apply this kind of thinking to your app specifically, we offer a free, no-obligation strategy session where we can dive into your project in more detail.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
